ASML says chip makers face a two year shortage of key machinery

DutchNews, March 21, 2022 

An ASML cleanroom where a euv machine is being assembled. Photo: ASML 

Semiconductor makers face a two-year shortage of critical equipment because Dutch chip machinery maker ASML is unable to meet demand fast enough, the company’s chief executive Peter Wennink has told the Financial Times. 

ASML, based in Veldhoven, is a key player in the global chip industry, producing machines which Intel, Samsung and TSMC all use to make advanced semiconductors. The company also has a monopoly in the field of EUV, or extreme ultra violet, based lithography machines.

‘Next year and the year after there will be shortages,’ Wennink told the paper. ‘We’re going to ship more machines this year than last year and . . . more machines next year than this year. But it will not be enough if we look at the demand curve. We really need to step up our capacity significantly more than 50%. That will take time.’ 

The FT said Wennink’s comments come as the semiconductor industry is speeding up investment in new production to meet a global shortage of chips, and that analysts expect the market to double to $1 tn by 2030.

Virus breaks the mold for telework in office-bound Japan

Yahoo - AFP, March 31, 2020

Japan's government has struggled to induce firms to offer teleworking, but the coronavirus
epidemic means many are now experimenting with working from home (AFP Photo/
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU)

The longstanding stereotype of Japan's office-bound "salaryman" is being tested as companies cautiously embrace working from home in a bid to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

Japan's government has for years been trying to encourage firms to implement "flexible working patterns", hoping that less demanding office hours will help women return to work after having children and men share more housework and childcare.

But uptake has been slow. A survey published last year found around 19 percent of companies offered a telework option, but just 8.5 percent of employees polled had tried it out.

Experts say part of the challenge is the social stigma attached to deviating from the "salaryman" stereotype of the suited-up office worker who proves his dedication by spending long hours at his desk.

Polls show "the Japanese still have this image that telework isn't real work because you're not physically in the office," said Haruka Kazama, an economist at the Mizuho research institute.

That's a view familiar to Yuki Sato, 35, currently experimenting with teleworking for the first time.

"The image of going to the office is very strong. You have to show that you work hard and long hours and that you help your colleagues," Sato told AFP.

"With telework, we can't show our goodwill and motivation," he added.

Yuki Sato has been working at home since February, and has more time to spend 

with his two daughters and wife (AFP Photo/Behrouz MEHRI)

'It's actually nice'

But the spread of the new coronavirus has forced employers and workers to give telework a try in Japan, and Sato for one has been pleasantly surprised.

"Unlike I'd expected, it's actually nice. Much easier than going to the office," said Sato, who has been working at home since February when the government began asking workers to telework to avoid spreading the new coronavirus.

He works for a Tokyo start-up, Phybbit, which offers services to counter digital fraud, and had never before tried working from home.

"This experience has completely changed my image of teleworking," he told AFP in the small office he has set up in the family home he shares with his wife and two children.

For a start, it saves him two hours of commuting a day, meaning he has more time with his daughters, whose schools are currently closed.

"I can also give them their bath in the evening, something I could never do during the week before because I was never home before 8pm."

Sato's wife Hitomi takes primary care of their daughters, six-year-old Yurina and four-year-old Hidano and said she has welcomed the helping hand at home.

"I'm glad that he's here, and the girls are happy to spend time with their dad," she said.

The Japanese government has renewed its push for teleworking and off-peak commuting in recent years, hoping to ease the burden on the notoriously congested Tokyo public transport system, particularly ahead of the Olympics.

But there hasn't been much enthusiasm.

Japan's government hopes telework can help mothers return to employment after

 having children and ease the burden on Tokyo's notoriously congested transport 

system (AFP Photo/CHARLY TRIBALLEAU)

'Mindsets are changing'

Kunihiko Higa, a professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology who specialises in flexible work options, attributes that to reluctant managers.

Many of them "consider teleworking only as a tool for workers," he told AFP.

"In other words, they don't understand that teleworking, if used in the right way, can be a management strategy tool."

The coronavirus outbreak appears to have achieved what government campaigns could not, forcing the hands of firms who may previously have been reluctant.

"The situation has put their backs against the wall. They've been forced to give their employees the choice to telework," said Kazama.

A poll carried out at the end of February by the Keidanren business association of nearly 400 major firms found nearly 70 percent had already begun implementing teleworking or were planning to because of the pandemic.

The switch hasn't been universal. Workers still cram onto commuter trains -- albeit in smaller numbers -- and Japan's parliament is hardly setting the tone, continuing to hold sessions and ministerial press conferences.

And there is no guarantee yet that companies will continue to allow teleworking when the crisis eases.

But experts said being forced to try teleworking was likely to leave a lasting impact in Japan, with companies beginning to see working from home as a feasible and even attractive option.

"I think mindsets are changing," said Kazama.

Microsoft, Amazon, Google join fight to prevent famine

Yahoo – AFP, 23 September 2018

Rather than waiting to respond to a famine after many have already died, the tech
firms, including Amazon, "will use the predictive power of data to trigger funding"
to take action before it becomes a crisis, the World Bank and UN announced

Tech giants Microsoft, Amazon and Google are joining forces with international organizations to help identify and head off famines in developing nations using data analysis and artificial intelligence, a new initiative unveiled Sunday.

Rather than waiting to respond to a famine after many lives already have been lost, the tech firms "will use the predictive power of data to trigger funding" to take action before it becomes a crisis, the World Bank and United Nations announced in a joint statement.

"The fact that millions of people -- many of them children -- still suffer from severe malnutrition and famine in the 21st century is a global tragedy," World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said in a statement. "We are forming an unprecedented global coalition to say, 'no more.'"

Last year more than 20 million people faced famine conditions in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, while 124 million people currently live in crisis levels of food insecurity, requiring urgent humanitarian assistance for their survival, the agencies said. Over half of them live in areas affected by conflict.

The Famine Action Mechanism (FAM) will provide early warning signs to identify food crises that could become famines, and trigger pre-arranged funding plans to allow early intervention.

"If we can better predict when and where future famines will occur, we can save lives by responding earlier and more effectively," Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a statement.

Google, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services and other technology firms are providing expertise to develop a suite of analytical models called "Artemis" that uses AI and machine learning to estimate and forecast worsening food security crises in real-time. These forecasts will help guide and promote decision makers to respond earlier.

"Artificial intelligence and machine learning hold huge promise for forecasting and detecting early signs of food shortages, like crop failures, droughts, natural disasters, and conflicts," Smith said.

The FAM will initially be rolled out in a small group of vulnerable countries building up to ultimately provide global coverage. On October 13, leaders dedicated to this initiative will gather as part of the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Bali, Indonesia to discuss further implementation.

Manhunt for hackers behind global cyberattack

Yahoo – AFP, Robin MILLARD, May 14, 2017

The huge cyberattack wiped out display screens at rail stations in Germany
(AFP Photo/Boris Roessler)

London (AFP) - International investigators hunted Saturday for those behind an unprecedented cyber-attack that affected systems in dozens of countries, including at banks, hospitals and government agencies, as security experts sought to contain the fallout.

The assault, which began Friday and was being described as the biggest-ever cyber ransom attack, struck state agencies and major companies around the world -- from Russian banks and British hospitals to FedEx and European car factories.

"The recent attack is at an unprecedented level and will require a complex international investigation to identify the culprits," said Europol, Europe's police agency.

Europol said a special task force at its European Cybercrime Centre was "specially designed to assist in such investigations and will play an important role in supporting the investigation".

The attacks used ransomware that apparently exploited a security flaw in Microsoft operating systems, locking users' files unless they pay the attackers a designated sum in the virtual currency Bitcoin.

Images appeared on victims' screens demanding payment of $300 (275 euros) in Bitcoin, saying: "Ooops, your files have been encrypted!"

Payment is demanded within three days or the price is doubled, and if none is received within seven days the files will be deleted, according to the screen message.

But experts and government alike warn against ceding to the hackers' demands.

"Paying the ransom does not guarantee the encrypted files will be released," the US Department of Homeland Security's computer emergency response team said.

"It only guarantees that the malicious actors receive the victim's money, and in some cases, their banking information."

'Painful'

Experts and officials offered differing estimates of the scope of the attacks, but all agreed it was huge.

Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at the Helsinki-based cyber security company F-Secure, told AFP it was the biggest ransomware outbreak in history, saying that 130,000 systems in more than 100 countries had been affected.

He said Russia and India were hit particularly hard, largely because Microsoft's Windows XP -- one of the operating systems most at risk -- was still widely used there.

French police said there were "more than 75,000 victims" around the globe, but cautioned that the number could increase "significantly".

The virus spread quickly because the culprits used a digital code believed to have been developed by the US National Security Agency -- and subsequently leaked as part of a document dump, according to researchers at the Moscow-based computer security firm Kaspersky Lab.

Microsoft said the situation was "painful" and that it was taking "all possible actions to protect our customers".

It issued guidance for people to protect their systems, while taking the highly unusual step of reissuing security patches first made available in March for Windows XP and other older versions of its operating system.

Europe worst hit

US software firm Symantec said the majority of organisations affected were in Europe, and the attack was believed to be indiscriminate.

The companies and government agencies targeted were diverse.

In the United States, package delivery group FedEx said it was "implementing remediation steps as quickly as possible," while French carmaker Renault was forced to stop production at sites in France, Slovenia and Romania.

Russia's interior ministry said some of its computers had been hit by a "virus attack" and that efforts were underway to destroy it. The country's banking system was also attacked, although no problems were detected, as was the railway system.

Germany's rail operator Deutsche Bahn said its station display panels were affected. Universities in Greece and Italy also were hit.

China's network information safety working group sent a warning to universities about the cyber-attack and the National Internet Emergency Center suggested that users update Windows security patches.

Shanghai's Fudan University received reports that a large number of school computers were infected with the virus.

Accidental 'kill switch'

Kaspersky said it was "trying to determine whether it is possible to decrypt data locked in the attack -- with the aim of developing a decryption tool as soon as possible."

On Saturday, a cyber security researcher told AFP he had accidentally discovered a "kill switch" that could prevent the spread of the ransomware.

The researcher, tweeting as @MalwareTechBlog, said registering a domain name used by the malware stops it from spreading, though it cannot help computers already affected.

"If you have anything to patch, patch it," the researcher said in a blog post. "Now I should probably sleep."

A hacking group called Shadow Brokers released the malware in April claiming to have discovered the flaw from the NSA, Kaspersky said.

"Unlike most other attacks, this malware is spreading primarily by direct infection from machine to machine on local networks, rather than purely by email," said Lance Cottrell, chief scientist at the US technology group Ntrepid.

G7 finance ministers meeting in Italy vowed to unite against cyber crime, as it represented a growing threat to their economies and should be tackled as a priority. The danger will be discussed at the G7 leaders' summit next month.

In Britain, the attack disrupted care at National Health Service facilities, forcing ambulances to divert and hospitals to postpone operations.

"There will be lessons to learn from what appears to be the biggest criminal cyber-attack in history," Interior minister Amber Rudd said.

"But our immediate priority as a government is to disrupt the attack, restore affected services as soon as possible, and establish who was behind it so we can bring them to justice."

burs-sst/kb

Ransomware: Malicious code blocks access to the data in your computer, allowing hackers to take it pic.twitter.com/DgZFD5kaAn

— AFP news agency (@AFP) May 12, 2017

Related Article:

Renault shuts down sites after being hit by cyberattack

Renewable energy vital for Internet lifestyles: Greenpeace

Yahoo – AFP, Glenn Chapman, May 12, 2015

A Greenpeace report charges utilities with hampering efforts to use renewable

 energy to power data centers needed for services hosted in the cloud (AFP

Photo/Martin Bureau)

San Francisco (AFP) - A Greenpeace report released on Tuesday charged utilities with hampering efforts to use renewable energy to power data centers needed for services hosted in the cloud.

Greenpeace praised moves made by Apple, Google and other Internet titans to fill a skyrocketing demand for electricity with solar, wind or other environmentally-friendly sources but lamented expansion of data center capacity in places where utilities reliant on carbon-spewing coal fuel dominate markets.

"A growing number of companies have begun to create a corner of the Internet that is renewably powered and coal free," the report said in an executive summary.

A Greenpeace activist sets miniature

 windmills in front of Strasbourg's railway

 station during an action aimed at 

increasing public awareness of 

energetical transition on February 11,

2012 (AFP Photo/Frederick Florin)

Internet companies that have committed to being completely powered by renewable energy sources include Apple, Facebook, and Google, according to Greenpeace.

Those commitments have driven growth of renewable power in several key markets, and caused some utilities to invest more heavily in that kind of electricity generation to meet demand, the report stated.

However, some locations that have attracted data center investments are in markets ruled by utilities with generation powered mostly by coal, gases from which are a culprit in climate change.

Examples listed included Duke Energy in North Carolina, Dominion Resources in Virginia, and Taiwan Power Company in Taiwan.

"These utilities represent the biggest obstacles to building a green Internet, and will require collaborative pressure from data center operators and other electricity customers to secure the policy changes needed to open the market up to competitors that offer meaningful options for renewable energy," Greenpeace said.

Apple leads the charge

Apple continued to "lead the charge" in using clean energy to power Internet operations even as the California-based company rapidly expanded, according to the report.

Apple on Sunday announced broadened renewable energy and environmental protection initiatives in China, including a project with the World Wildlife Fund to promote responsible forest management.

The forestland project aims to protect up to a million acres of working forests used for fiber for paper and wood products, according to Apple.

The project is expected to generate as much as 80 million kilowatt hours annually of clean electricity, enough to power about 61,000 Chinese homes.

About 87 percent of Apple's global operations run on renewable energy, and the Sichuan Province solar farms will move the company closer to 100 percent, according to the maker of iPhones, iPads, iPods, Macintosh Computers, and Apple Watch.

Apple continues to "lead the charge" in using clean energy to power Internet 

operations even as the California-based company rapidly expanded, 

according to the report (AFP Photo/Philippe Huguen)

Google is also pushing to rely on renewable energy, but its progress is under threat by monopolies held by coal-using utilities in some data center locations such as Georgia, Singapore, Taiwan, and the Carolinas, according to Greenpeace.

Amazon, Microsoft, eBay, and Oracle were among technology giant's who scored low grades from Greenpeace when it came to green energy deployment and advocacy.

"The magic of the Internet seems almost limitless," Greenpeace said. "But each new internet enabled magic trick means more and more data."

Increasing demand for data, particularly streaming video, and processing power in the cloud means ramped up demand for power by data centers doing the online work.

"While there may be significant energy efficiency gains from moving our lives online, the explosive growth of our digital lives is outstripping those gains," Greenpeace said.

Google joins fight against illegal fishing

Yahoo – AFP, 14 Nov 2014

One of the challenges in tackling illegal fishing has been the lack of jurisdiction

on the high seas (AFP Photo/Joel Nito)

Technology giant Google has taken the battle against illegal fishing online, with the company unveiling a tool in Australia on Friday that harnesses satellite data to track thousands of boats in real time.

A prototype interactive tool, which was developed in conjunction with environmental activists SkyTruth and marine advocacy group Oceana, was unveiled at the once-a-decade World Parks Congress in Sydney.

The tool is the latest salvo from environmentalists against illegal fishing, which is currently estimated by the Global Ocean Commission to cost the world economy up to US$23.5 billion a year.

An office worker checks out a map on 

Google's satellite image service, in Hong

 Kong, on October 18, 2005 (AFP Photo/

Laurent Fievet)

"While many of the environmental trends in the ocean can be sobering, the combination of cloud computing and massive data is enabling new tools to visualise, understand and potentially reverse these trends," Brian Sullivan of Google's Earth Outreach and Oceans section said.

The tool uses data points from the Automatic Identification System network, which picks up GPS broadcasts of a vessel's location to map movements.

The prototype has tracked just over 3,000 fishing vessels, with a public tool set to be released down the track.

SkyTruth said the system, which will only monitor fishing vessels, would make activities usually invisible to the wider public easily viewable.

"So much of what happens out on the high seas is invisible, and that has been a huge barrier to understanding and showing the world what's at stake for the ocean," SkyTruth's president and founder John Amos said.

"Satellite data is allowing us to make human interaction with the ocean more transparent than ever before."

The Global Ocean Commission, an independent panel launched in February 2013, said evidence showed seas have been fished to dangerously low levels, with 90 percent of the world's large fish stocks -- such as tuna and swordfish -- already gone.

The commission said one of the challenges in tackling illegal fishing was the lack of jurisdiction on the high seas.

While the high seas make up 64 percent of the ocean's total surface area, they fall beyond national jurisdictions and suffer from a lack of oversight, the organisation said.

The World Parks Congress, which is being held in Sydney until November 19, has drawn thousands of delegates and is set to lay out a global agenda for protected areas for the next decade.

Related Article:

Indonesia Declares War on Illegal Foreign Fishing Boats

Etiquette gets reboot for digital age

Yahoo – AFP, Rob Lever, 5 July 2014

File photo shows a couple reading texts on their smartphones while having

drinks together at a shopping mall in Bangkok (AFP Photo/Nicolas Asfouri)

Washington (AFP) - The digital age has created a host of new etiquette dilemmas.

What should you do when your boss sends a Facebook friend request? Is it OK to take and share smartphone pictures at a friend's wedding? When should you take off Google Glass, rather than just turn it off?

Etiquette mavens say the book on manners must be rewritten, literally, to take into account new technologies and social media.

"Technology is such an area of anxiety for people," says Steven Petrow, an author of etiquette books who last month began a digital manners column for USA Today.

In recent columns, Petrow addressed the question of mass emails that reveal the names of all recipients (not OK, he says), and how to deal with wedding guests who want to share smartphone pictures before the official photos are available (he urges the couple to make their wishes clear in the invitation).

"Fundamentally, I come back to my core values, which are about respect, kindness and civility," Petrow told AFP.

Social media such as Facebook pose particular etiquette problems: if users post news about a death, birth or engagement before relatives are notified, that creates tensions among family members.

"On Facebook, even if you have privacy protection, someone else can grab your message and send it along," said Emily Yoffe, who pens the "Dear Prudence" column on Slate.

"Once you post it, you don't control that information anymore," said Yoffe, advising people to treat all social media posts as public.

Petrow sees other quandaries -- for example, whether it is appropriate to "like" a Facebook post about sad news.

"I believe that liking means you acknowledge it," he said. "So you can like something sad but you should add a note to say what you mean."

Social media is also used to break off, or to announce a new relationship, which can be a surprise to the other person.

"It's always best to take your time, to discuss this with the other person," Petrow said.

As for the boss's friend request, Petrow advised managers to steer clear of this to avoid potential conflicts.

Etiquette mavens say the book on manners must be rewritten, literally, to 

take into account new technologies and social media (AFP Photo/Ed Jones)

Employees should not ignore the request, but offer instead to connect on the professional network LinkedIn, he said.

Emily Post for digital era

Digital technology has forced a reboot at the Emily Post Institute, which grew out of the work of the noted etiquette author.

Her great-great-grandson Daniel Post Senning released a book last year on digital etiquette after realizing the topic merited more than just a chapter in the updated Emily Post book.

"New technology is changing every major aspect of people's lives for which they would come to Emily Post looking for advice," Senning said.

A longstanding digital etiquette issue is when people should turn off or silence their smartphones.

"The biggest challenge is that these devices take our attention from the people we're with," Senning told AFP.

While smartphones are enormously useful tools, "If you're with other people, your attention should be there," Senning said. "Most people know that intuitively."

Social networks are great places for sharing, but sometimes people go overboard. A 2012 survey by Intel found that in several countries, a majority said they were put off by "oversharing" of pictures and personal information.

Senning said the Post Institute often follows what is accepted by the public but that sometimes it takes the opposite view "if it's a question of our fundamental principles of consideration, respect and honesty."

Think before you tweet

On Twitter, the ability to post messages quickly has led to some embarrassing moments or worse, experts say.

"Some people lose their jobs because of an ill-advised tweet," Yoffe said.

"In the heat of the moment, people think they are having a one-on-one conversation, but this is totally public."

Twitter gaffes can turn into public relations nightmares for companies using social media to boost their image.

A 2012 survey by Intel found that in several countries, a majority said they

 were put off by "oversharing" of pictures and personal information on the internet

and smartphones (AFP Photo/Nicolas Asfouri)

Dutch airline KLM, of the Air France-KLM Group, found this out when it tweeted "Adios Amigos" after the Netherlands' dramatic win over Mexico in football's World Cup.

The airline apologized and deleted the tweet, but not before thousands of enraged Mexicans tweeted their displeasure.

"We encourage companies to be conversational and engaging. But they have to understand they are speaking on behalf of a brand," said Jeanette Gibson of Hootsuite, which provides a social media dashboard, and offers training on using different platforms.

Gibson said social media marketing can be useful in building brand identity, "but you don't want to come across as spamming your audience."

Trouble with 'Glassholes'

Etiquette may see more changes with devices such as the Internet-connected eyewear Google Glass.

Google has preemptively offered tips to avoid becoming a "Glasshole," such as turning off the eyewear in many situations.

Wearable electronics like Google Glass create fears about being spied on.

"I don't think turning it off will be sufficient to quell those concerns," Petrow said.

"Every new device seems to spawn its own chapter of etiquette dilemmas."

From a historical perspective, "every generation perceives the state of manners in decline," said Senning of the Post Institute.

"People thought that when the telephone moved to the home it would destroy home life, and it didn't."

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The Internet  - The first Worldwide Tool of Unification ("The End of History")

" ... Now I give you something that few think about: What do you think the Internet is all about, historically? Citizens of all the countries on Earth can talk to one another without electronic borders. The young people of those nations can all see each other, talk to each other, and express opinions. No matter what the country does to suppress it, they're doing it anyway. They are putting together a network of consciousness, of oneness, a multicultural consciousness. It's here to stay. It's part of the new energy. The young people know it and are leading the way.... "

" ... I gave you a prophecy more than 10 years ago. I told you there would come a day when everyone could talk to everyone and, therefore, there could be no conspiracy. For conspiracy depends on separation and secrecy - something hiding in the dark that only a few know about. Seen the news lately? What is happening? Could it be that there is a new paradigm happening that seems to go against history?... " Read More …. "The End of History"- Nov 20,2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…5 - Integrity That May Surprise…

Have you seen innovation and invention in the past decade that required thinking out of the box of an old reality? Indeed, you have. I can't tell you what's coming, because you haven't thought of it yet! But the potentials of it are looming large. Let me give you an example, Let us say that 20 years ago, you predicted that there would be something called the Internet on a device you don't really have yet using technology that you can't imagine. You will have full libraries, buildings filled with books, in your hand - a worldwide encyclopedia of everything knowable, with the ability to look it up instantly! Not only that, but that look-up service isn't going to cost a penny! You can call friends and see them on a video screen, and it won't cost a penny! No matter how long you use this service and to what depth you use it, the service itself will be free.

Now, anyone listening to you back then would perhaps have said, "Even if we can believe the technological part, which we think is impossible, everything costs something. There has to be a charge for it! Otherwise, how would they stay in business?" The answer is this: With new invention comes new paradigms of business. You don't know what you don't know, so don't decide in advance what you think is coming based on an old energy world. ..."

Germany cancels Verizon contract over snooping fear

BBC News, 26 June 2014

German Chancellor Angela Merkel types on a smartphone

Related Stories

• Germany opens Merkel bugging probe

The German government has cancelled a contract with Verizon over concern that US firms may be giving data to US authorities.

Verizon has provided internet services to a number of German government departments and the current contract was due to run out in 2015.

The firm did not comment on the move.

There was anger in Germany over allegations that a US agency bugged Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone.

Earlier this month Germany announced an investigation into those allegations which were made by a former contractor of the US National Security Agency (NSA), Edward Snowden.

There is no suggestion that Verizon was involved, but the controversy has put pressure on US technology firms doing business in Germany.

High level security

German Interior Ministry spokesman Tobias Plate said: "There are indications that Verizon is legally required to provide certain things to the NSA, and that's one of the reasons the cooperation with Verizon won't continue".

"Furthermore, the ties revealed between foreign intelligence agencies and firms in the wake of the US National Security Agency affair, show that the German government needs a very high level of security for its critical networks," he said.

Verizon is the second biggest US telecoms company after AT&T.

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Vodafone reveals existence of secret wires that allow state surveillance

Wires allow agencies to listen to or record live conversations, in what privacy campaigners are calling a 'nightmare scenario'

The Guardian, Juliette Garside, Friday 6 June 2014

Vodafone has revealed the secret wires are widely used in the 29 countries
it operates in. Photograph: Carl Court/AFP

Vodafone, one of the world's largest mobile phone groups, has revealed the existence of secret wires that allow government agencies to listen to all conversations on its networks, saying they are widely used in some of the 29 countries in which it operates in Europe and beyond.

The company has broken its silence on government surveillance in order to push back against the increasingly widespread use of phone and broadband networks to spy on citizens, and will publish its first Law Enforcement Disclosure Report on Friday . At 40,000 words, it is the most comprehensive survey yet of how governments monitor the conversations and whereabouts of their people.

The company said wires had been connected directly to its network and those of other telecoms groups, allowing agencies to listen to or record live conversations and, in certain cases, track the whereabouts of a customer. Privacy campaigners said the revelations were a "nightmare scenario" that confirmed their worst fears on the extent of snooping.

In Albania, Egypt, Hungary, India, Malta, Qatar, Romania, South Africa and Turkey, it is unlawful to disclose any information related to wiretapping or interception of the content of phone calls and messages including whether such capabilities exist.

"For governments to access phone calls at the flick of a switch is unprecedented and terrifying," said the Liberty director, Shami Chakrabarti. "[Edward] Snowden revealed the internet was already treated as fair game. Bluster that all is well is wearing pretty thin – our analogue laws need a digital overhaul."

In about six of the countries in which Vodafone operates, the law either obliges telecoms operators to install direct access pipes, or allows governments to do so. The company, which owns mobile and fixed broadband networks, including the former Cable & Wireless business, has not named the countries involved because certain regimes could retaliate by imprisoning its staff.

Direct-access systems do not require warrants, and companies have no information about the identity or the number of customers targeted. Mass surveillance can happen on any telecoms network without agencies having to justify their intrusion to the companies involved.

Industry sources say that in some cases, the direct-access wire, or pipe, is essentially equipment in a locked room in a network's central data centre or in one of its local exchanges or "switches".

The staff working in that room can be employed by the telecoms firm, but have state security clearance and are usually unable to discuss any aspect of their work with the rest of the company. Vodafone says it requires all employees to follow its code of conduct, but secrecy means that it cannot always verify that they do so.

Government agencies can also intercept traffic on its way into a data centre, combing through conversations before routing them on to the operator.

"These are the nightmare scenarios that we were imagining," said Gus Hosein, executive director of Privacy International, which has brought legal action against the British government over mass surveillance.

"I never thought the telcos [telecommunications companies] would be so complicit. It's a brave step by Vodafone and hopefully the other telcos will become more brave with disclosure, but what we need is for them to be braver about fighting back against the illegal requests and the laws themselves."

Vodafone's group privacy officer, Stephen Deadman, said: "These pipes exist, the direct access model exists.

"We are making a call to end direct access as a means of government agencies obtaining people's communication data. Without an official warrant, there is no external visibility. If we receive a demand we can push back against the agency. The fact that a government has to issue a piece of paper is an important constraint on how powers are used."

Vodafone is calling for all direct-access pipes to be disconnected, and for the laws that make them legal to be amended. It says governments should "discourage agencies and authorities from seeking direct access to an operator's communications infrastructure without a lawful mandate".

All states should publish annual data on the number of warrants issued, the company argues. There are two types – those for the content of calls and messages, and those for the metadata, which can cover the location of a target's device, the times and dates of communications, and the people with whom they communicated.

For brevity, the Guardian has also used the term metadata to cover warrants for customer information such as name and address. The information published in our table covers 2013 or the most recent year available. A single warrant can target hundreds of individuals and devices, and several warrants can target just one individual. Governments count warrants in different ways and New Zealand, for example, excludes those concerning national security. While software companies like Apple and Microsoft have jumped to publish the number of warrants they receive since the activities of America's NSA and Britain's GCHQ came to light, telecoms companies, which need government licences to operate, have been slower to respond.

In America, Verizon and AT&T have published data, but only on their domestic operations. Deutsche Telekom in Germany and Telstra in Australia have also broken ground at home. Vodafone is the first to produce a global survey.

It shows that Malta is one of the most spied on nations in Europe. The former British protectorate has a tiny population of 420,000, but last year Vodafone alone processed 3,773 requests for metadata.

In Italy, where the mafia's presence requires a high level of police intrusion, Vodafone received 606,000 metadata requests, more than any other country in which it runs networks. The number of warrants across all operators is potentially many times that number, but the government does not publish a national figure for metadata.

Italy's parliament does disclose content warrants, however, and it issued 141,000 in 2012, compared with just 2,760 in the United Kingdom. In contrast to the UK, terrorism concerns mean Ireland does not allow any information on the number of content warrants to be made public.

Spain, which has suffered terrorist strikes from Islamists and Basque separatists, allowed Vodafone to disclose that it had received over 24,000 content warrants. Agencies in the Czech Republic made nearly 8,000 content requests from the network. After Italy, the Czech Republic is the biggest user of metadata, issuing 196,000 warrants nationally in the most recent year for which information has been published. Tanzania, one of several African countries in which Vodafone operates, made 99,000 metadata requests from the company.

Peter Micek, policy counsel at the campaign group Access, said: "In a sector that has historically been quiet about how it facilitates government access to user data, Vodafone has for the first time shone a bright light on the challenges of a global telecom giant, giving users a greater understanding of the demands governments make of telcos. Vodafone's report also highlights how few governments issue any transparency reports, with little to no information about the number of wiretaps, cell site tower dumps, and other invasive surveillance practices."

On the question of whether the UK uses direct-access pipes, Vodafone's Deadman said such a system would be illegal because Britain did not permit agencies to obtain information without a warrant. The law does, however, allow indiscriminate collection of information on an unidentified number of targets. "We need to debate how we are balancing the needs of law enforcement with the fundamental rights and freedoms of the citizens. The ideal is we get a much more informed debate going, and we do all of that without putting our colleagues in danger."

Snowden, the National Security Agency whistleblower, joined Google, Reddit, Mozilla and other tech firms and privacy groups on Thursday to call for a strengthening of privacy rights online in a "Reset the net" campaign.

Twelve months after revelations about the scale of the US government's surveillance programs were first published in the Guardian and the Washington Post, Snowden said: "One year ago, we learned that the internet is under surveillance, and our activities are being monitored to create permanent records of our private lives – no matter how innocent or ordinary those lives might be. Today, we can begin the work of effectively shutting down the collection of our online communications, even if the US Congress fails to do the same."